This paper reviews the reconstruction of European Atlantic storm events with the contribution of a new stormy reconstruction in its central part. Three marsh environments on the island of Yeu were chosen to identify disturbing storm events from the Mid- to Late Holocene with vibracore sampling, radiocarbon dating and sedimentary analysis. Nine probable intervals of high energy deposition in these low-transport-activity environments are estimated: 600–500, near 1590, 2100–1950, 2850–2350, 3500–3270, 5400–5370, 6650–6510, near 7000 and between 7670 and 7470 calibrated years before present (cal y BP). By comparison with sedimentological paleostorm studies, we confirm six European Atlantic storm events estimated at near 600–300, 1700–1100, 2900–2500, 3500–3300, 5500–5100 and 7700–7100 cal y BP, corresponding to worldwide Holocene cooling climatic periods. A comparison with other storminess reviews of worldwide main stormy coasts shows that Holocene storms can increase during global cooling periods in the northern hemisphere.
This paper details a high-resolution record of French Atlantic coast extreme wave events using a multi-proxy analysis of dated sedimentary deposits. Two lagoons 1) the Petite Mer de Gâvres and 2) the Traicts du Croisic were chosen to identify damaging storm events from the last 300 years with Beeker sampling, 210 Pb and 137 Cs dating and sedimentary analysis. Using two new geochemical proxies in the French Atlantic coast, Sr/Fe and Ca/Ti, shows that several storminess events are reported in the nine cores drilled. By correlation with historical
This paper reviews the climatological influences on major past storm events in the Northeast Atlantic. Analyses are based on a millenary record of sedimentological and historical impacts affecting coastal societies. The effects of 20 past storms have been found from sedimentary deposits from the last 1,000 years. Historical archives confirmed these events. This paper highlights five major storms that have markedly impacted coastal populations. They date back to 1351-1352, 1469, 1645, 1711 and 1751 AD. The 1351-1352 AD event is defined as a millennium storm that was "likely apocalyptical", provoking serious damage and long lasting floods on much of the European coast. Major storm impacts have mostly been recorded during positive North Atlantic Oscillation phases. Four decreasing temperature phases are concomitant with 1300-1355, 1420-1470, 1560-1590 and 1690-1715 AD periods, during which much of the northern Atlantic coast of France underwent severe storm damages. Reconstructing extreme storm history is a methodological challenge of importance in order to understand climate change 1,2. Data studying recent storms have proved that anthropogenic warming has impacted extratropical storm activity or trajectories in the North Atlantic Ocean 3,4. These studies are mainly based on isotopic temperature evolution or oceanological and climatological modelling. Historical and sedimentological data are used to understand centuries-old historical storm trends, thus extending this analysis's timescale. They give us valuable information on past storm dynamics, including their relation with various climatological mechanisms, such as the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) or temperature variation 5-7. The most impacting storms studied can testify to notable ancient phases of high extreme storm activity. These storm phases have deeply impacted their environments, coastal societies and the area's past economic activity. This paper reviews storm impacts recorded on central European coasts; many of which have been largely studied by historians, thanks to an extensive and high-quality regional archive collection 8-14. Sedimentological data are primarily used in storm research to expose environmental disturbances of Storm Events (StE) that occurred during the last millennium 7,15. Several sedimentological palaeostorm studies have already been conducted on the central European coast 16-20. However, they mainly focus on Holocene storm phases or post nineteenth century storms. While a large collection of historical documents precisely exposing storms' societal and economic impacts is available, sedimentological records of millennium storms are still less documented in this area. Consequently, this paper has three main objectives: (1) to detect impacting StE in the last 1,000 years thanks to a combination of sedimentological data and historical documents; (2) to use this crossing to spatialise damage and assess past trajectories of the most disturbing storms that crossed the area; and (3) to compare storm chronologies with NAO and temperature...
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